Modeling System Of A Down Guitar Sound

[mks212]

Hi,

I'm new to AmpliTube and would like to mimic the sound of Daron Malakian's guitar. I'm learning how to play their song "Dreaming."

I'm a little lost on where to begin, as far as what amp to select and then what to do with the pedals in Stomp A and B.

If you have any suggestions, please let me know. Thank you!

Mike

[carlaz]

Happily, there is a great deal of information out there online about players' gear and tones. It's not always accurate -- there can be a lot of weird speculation especially about the gear and tones on older recordings. My experience, though, is that a lot of modern players (and I'm counting Daron Malakian, even though the Mezmerize/Hypnotize album(s) was/were, like, from 16 years ago!) are happy to talk about their gear, especially in interviews and features with well-known guitar magazines, YouTube interviewers, etc.

So, for example, there is a Guitar World feature on/interview with Malakian from that period (https://www.guitarworld.com/features/daron-malakian-21st-century-schizoid-man) that suggests his main gear on the album was a modded Marshall "JMP100". That designation is a little hazy, but it's probably some kind of '70s Marshall, either a non-master-volume Superlead or an early master-volume 2203. There are a few AmpliTube options here, but I'd pick a Vintage Metal Lead or -- for a more "modern" and "modded" sound -- the AFD 100. More recent interviews with Malakian suggest he's into Friedman amps, feeling they sound like his modded Marshalls, and so the MiniPlex 20 (based on a Friedman Pink Taco) might be a good option, too.

The same GW article says he used a single 4x12 cab, and there's a more recent Ernie Ball YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfPYrloYyUs) that (among other things) shows Malakian playing with a Marshall cab of the angled "A" variety, though I wouldn't want to guess exactly which cab model or what speakers might be in it. You can just try different Marshall-style cabs in AmpliTube and see what sounds good to you. That video does seem to show him using a single Royer 121 on the cab, though, which is modeled in AmpliTube as the Ribbon 121. The video also shows his pedalboard: it's not super complicated. There are is a Boss DD-6 (AmpliTube's /Delay I think models the DD-3), another Strymon digital delay (not modeled in AmpliTube but ... it's another digital delay), and a MXR Phase 90 (model in AmpliTube as the Phaze Nine).

The GW article also discusses some esoteric room-mic'ing techniques and notes that some of the more exotic "multitracked, harmonized, Greek bouzouki-like timbres [on the Mezmerize/Hypnotize album(s)] ... were achieved on a Fender Jazzmaster through a Divided by 13 model FTR-37 amp" -- but it's probably best to not worry about all that too much!

Anyway, I really don't know much about Malakian or SOAD, but a little Googling will quickly start to get you some information about his gear. Start there and experiment.

[mks212]

Thanks Carl for all the info! I'm an intermediate player and up until now, have only gone to direct to my 30-watt crate amp (no pedals) and used the distortion on there. To all of sudden have 100s of options has been a little confusing! I'll spend some time messing around with the options you suggested and also google his interviews to see.

Thanks again!

[carlaz]

I know how you feel! I only really had little combo/practice amps back when I was playing in bands and stuff; I went to AmpliTube when I was playing and recording more at home (being a responsible dad who could no longer spend a lot of time in dingy pub-venues and dingier practice rooms! ) and ... well, there's a lot of stuff in AmpliTube (even if we probably all feel like it's criminally missing a few super important things ).

And although the subtleties of exactly which pieces of gear, recorded and processed in exactly which ways, mean that it's almost possible to achieve the exact sounds of our guitar heroes (even if we had their fingers, which we don't ), there is nevertheless a lot to be learned from seeing what other guitar players have done and trying to approximate (if actual replication is impossible) what they did -- and to try to figure out why. It's a good way (And a fun way) to teach one's self about all the gear models in AmpliTube.

And here's another tip -- though I don't think it is any secret: cabinets and speakers are incredibly important to tone, probably more so than amps. (At least within the confines of a given genre. I mean, obviously, choosing a little Fender Champ or a fire-breathing MESA Triple Rec makes a clear difference in tone. ) So it's worth investing time playing with the cabinet section in AmpliTube. Try different cabs, try different mic positions. Watch some videos on mic'ing guitar cabs and try to get a sense of how different mics emphasize different frequencies, and how placement closer or farther from the speaker center (horizontally across the speaker), and placement closer or farther from the speaker/cabinet affect tone, and then go try to see for yourself in AmpliTube. (A lot of people prefer 3rd-party IRs, and there are places for them, but IMO the speaker/cabinet modeling in AmpliTube 5 is actually pretty good. Certainly good enough to learn something about how much mics, cabs, and speakers affect tone.)